Sisters
by GinStan
Summary: One-shot glimpse into Caroline and Cassidy's not so perfect life. NOT a part of my "Like..." series. I have to rate this one high for language, violence, and implied sexual abuse. Please read the authors notes before reading the story.


No Pairing in this one per se, but Miranda/Andy are clearly together.

Rating – I have to put this at NC-17 or possibly higher… for violence and implied sexual abuse of minors.

A/N - **This is a one-shot story that is totally and completely separate from my "Like…" Mirandy 'verse. ** It is considerably 'darker' than any of my other stories and deals with the results of sexual abuse of minors, the specific abuse is **not** described in any way but if this issue or this type of story disturbs you I would urge you **not** to read this.

A/N – Again, this is totally and completely separate from my "Like…" 'verse it's only a glimpse into an Alternate version of that and as I said earlier this is a one-shot, and I will not be continuing it in any way. Again, **I will not be continuing this story in any way**. You have been warned. Twice.

So if you still want to read it…

**Sisters**

By Gin

Cassidy rode the subway toward home, pleased with the events of her day. Less than half an hour ago she'd sat in front of a desk and justified her reason for wanting to work at the fledgling magazine. What was even better, the woman conducting the interview had no clue that she was Miranda Priestly's daughter. _Sometimes it's good to have your father's name instead of your mother's_. She mused and chuckled to herself with a smile. Working at the small but growing publication, one that covered the music industry, would be awesome.

Right now, because she'd straightened the curls of her youthful hair and because of the clothing and make up she'd chosen for the interview, she looked older, but she was only fifteen. She knew her mom had started even earlier than that in the fashion industry. But she wasn't going to drop out of school to do this job. She smiled and hugged herself. It was so cool to know she'd gotten this chance, all on her own. It was a great feeling. _Nothing could ruin this day,_ she thought then her phone chimed with her sister's ringtone.

"Hello, Sis."

"Cass!... Oh my God… have you seen the paper?" Caroline sounded frantic.

"Huh?" Cassidy's forehead wrinkled.

"Page Six!!"

Smoothing out her forehead with her left hand, Cassidy sighed. "What are they saying about her now?"

"No! Not Mom…" Caroline was in hysterics now but her voice lowered to a hiss. "It's _**him**_."

"Calm down!" Cassidy looked around the subway car and spotted an older man with a newspaper. "Hold on." She lowered the phone from her ear and slid into the seat next to the man.

"Hi." Turning her green eyes on him, she smiled and reached out to touch his hand, lightly. "Could I possibly borrow this, for a moment?"

"Uh…" He blinked at the force of her gaze and swallowed against a suddenly dry mouth. "Sure."

Her eyes twinkled and her smiled turned wicked for just a second as she took the paper from his hands. "Thanks." Turning to Page Six, and found her smile disappearing, her stomach churning. _Oh God…no_.

"Do you see it?" Caroline's voice rang through the small phone speaker. "Do you see the picture??"

"Yeah." Cassidy swallowed hard. "I see it."

"That's the woman he's dating now…" Caroline summed up the article to the points relevant to them. "…and her daughter, who will turn nine next week."

Cassidy stared at the photo, not at the man, he was nothing, not at the woman, she was stupid, she stared at the little girl, the happy, smiling little girl. One word escaped her lips.

"Damn."

"We have to figure this out, Cass…" Caroline was frantic again.

"I'm on my way home," Cassidy assured her. "We'll figure it out." Then the car she was in screeched to a halt and everything went black. "Shit!" Cassidy moved to the empty seat next to her immediately, putting at least one seat between her and the man she'd borrowed the paper from. "Subway just broke down…"

"No!" Caroline nearly wailed into her phone. "No… Cassidy… I'm going nuts here… please come home.. Please!"

"Sit tight, Sis." Cassidy clenched her teeth as she remembered the little girl in the picture. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Right now I have to go…" she assured the girl. "I'll call you back when they get us out of here."

"Cassidy!"

Caroline was hysterical and close to hyperventilating, Cassidy knew she needed to do something, and fast. So she did the only thing she could think of. Hanging up on her sister, the girl immediately called the only person she thought could, would, help them. It was like a rush of warm water over her as the voice sounded in her ear.

"Mirror, Andy Sachs speaking."

"Ma!"

"Hey, Sweetie. How'd the interview go?"

"Nevermind about that." Cassidy didn't disguise the urgency in her voice. "Something is wrong with Caroline, she called me all panicked and I'm stuck in the subway. Can you go home and check on her?"

"What?" Andy was already logging out of her computer and reaching for her coat. "Of course." She raised a hand to wave goodbye to her editor as she headed for the door. "Do you know what's wrong?"

"Panic attack I think…" Cassidy lied. "Please, just see if you can calm her down."

"Sure, Sweetheart." Andy raised a hand to flag down a taxi. "I'm on my way."

------------------

"Caroline?" Andy walked into the house and listened closely. She followed the odd sounds into the study and rushed to wrap her arms around the sobbing girl on the sofa. "Caroline… shhhh…" Petting the girl's hair, Andy tried to soothe the tears away. "What's wrong, Sweetheart?"

Sniffing, Caroline looked up, stunned to see their other mother there. "Andy? What are you doing here?"

"Cassidy called me. She said you were upset and wanted me to check on you." Andy smiled as she cupped the girl's face in her hands and wiped away the tears with her thumbs. "She's stuck on the subway and was worried about you." She studied the shiny eyes and tear streaked face. "What's wrong?"

Caroline felt the tears coming again and she reached for the paper. "Have you seen this?"

"Ah…" With a deep breath, Andy nodded. "I had seen it, yes."

"But you don't understand." Caroline pulled away from Andy's embrace. As her mind swirled with what it meant to her to be silent, she looked at the little smiling girl in the picture and words began to tumble from her lips. Terrible, horrible words that she'd had no intention of telling anyone, ever, she now told Andy. All of it, everything she knew, with one exception.

-------

Andy sat, in stunned silence, numb, unable to comprehend what Caroline was saying. The words, didn't make sense. _No…it's not possible… it's not…_ There was no way this was happening; no way she was hearing what she was hearing.

Trying to still the whirling in her head, she tried to think back to earlier today, to before this horrible revelation.

She woke up as she had nearly every day for the past five years curled around Miranda's body. _Okay, so far so good… _ She took her morning run, let Patricia play in the park… _Yeah, that's all normal._ She'd been at work for a while and then Cassidy called. _Okay, that's right…_ Something was wrong with Caroline so she'd rushed home and now… She looked at her daughter, her beautiful, crying daughter and was still unable to comprehend the meaning of what she'd been told. The girl's small voice pulled her out of her confusion, into new concerns.

"Do you hate me now?"

"Hate you?" Shaking her head, Andy's forehead wrinkled. "What? No! I could **never **hate you!" She saw Caroline swallow and in that moment a myriad of actions and reactions sifted through her considerably intelligent mind. The reality of the words Caroline had spoken clicked into place and suddenly things were clear. That clarity was, however, immediately clouded with red hot anger. "Does Miranda know?" The answer was obviously no, because the bastard was still alive.

Caroline paled. "No! Mom doesn't know and she can't. She'll kill him. I don't want her to go to jail!"

"What about him!" Andy paced in front of the girl then realized on a personal level exactly what had happened to Caroline. "Oh God!" Stopping her pacing, she grabbed the girl that was as much her daughter as any child could be and held her, unable to hold back the tears. "I'm so sorry…"

"Shhhh…" Caroline sighed and stroked the woman's hair. "I'm okay, it was a long time ago…" She berated herself for saying that and endured a brief tightening of Andy's arms before the woman released her completely.

"What!?" Andy's eyes slid to the photo in the paper and looked at the little girl in the picture again, as Caroline spoke, repeating what she'd said earlier, about the timeline.

The journalist's eyes widened as the math sunk in. "Oh my God!" She could feel herself shaking as her jaw tensed. The anger she had felt earlier shifted, now her mind was filled with pure white hot rage. Without another word, she turned and left the room.

Caroline shook off her own hysterics and grabbed her phone. Dialing her mirror image's number as she followed the tall brunette through the house. "Cass… we have a problem."

"Huh?" Cassidy was glad her sister sounded calmer.

"Andy knows…"

"What?" Sitting in the dark subway car, Cassidy's heartrate doubled.

Caroline sighed. "…I told…"

"Shit!" Cassidy sighed as the train chose that moment to begin moving again. Calm settled over her, someone else knew; at least part of it. "How's she taking it?"

Caroline blinked as the woman who was just as much her mother as her biological mother was, stopped at a closet on the fourth floor and pulled a lock box from the top shelf. "Uh…" She watched Andy open the box and lift a handgun from its depths. "She's got a gun."

"What?!" Cassidy panicked. "Stop her!"

"I'll try, but you know where she's going if I can't."

"Yes…" Cassidy practically shoved the train car doors open ran up the stairs to the street. "… call me if you can talk her down, otherwise I'll meet you there."

"Right." Caroline hung up and tried to talk some sense into Andy. "You can't do this."

"The Hell I can't." Shoving past the girl, Andy's long legs taking the stairs in more of a controlled fall than anything else kept her ahead of Caroline and her practice running gave her the advantage once they got outside.

"Dammit!" Caroline watched the woman's form disappearing into the distance. She called her sister again. "I couldn't stop her… she's on her way."

"Okay… I'll take it until you get there." Cassidy hailed a taxi. "Get there as fast as you can."

"Yeah…" Caroline ran her fingers through her red, straightened, hair. "I'm on my way."

* * *

Cassidy scrambled out of the cab and fell into step next to Andy as the woman stalked up to the house. The girl eyed the gun in Andy's hand. "You can't do this."

"I most certainly can." They reached the door and Andy pounded on the wood panel loudly. When the man answered the door, Andy shoved him backwards and didn't even care if Cassidy followed them inside or not.

"You son of a bitch." Andy knocked him back onto the couch and leaned over him, pressing the barrel of the gun to his temple. "Tell me why I shouldn't just fucking kill you right now."

"Hello to you too." Stephen's eyes slid past the angry woman to the teen behind her. "Nice to see you again." He ignored the gun at his head and looked at the young girl, thinking, _Caroline._

"Shut up!" Andy held the gun tighter, pressing harder. "You don't get to talk to her…" She felt like throwing up, the thought of this man… Tears welled up in her expressive eyes. _He's not a man, after what he did… he doesn't deserve to live…_

Stephen couldn't ignore the hard metal pressing against his head anymore, and remained quiet as the girl he knew was Caroline pleaded for his life.

Cassidy tried again. "Andy, don't do this. Please, Mom needs you."

"Miranda…" The thought of the editor cooled her thinking somewhat. _Oh God, this is going to kill Miranda. I'll need to be there, to comfort Miranda when she finds out…_

"Right…" Cassidy soothed. "Mom needs you with her, not in jail…"

"Jail? HE should be in jail!!" Andy was shaking now, knowing what the so-called man had done, again fighting the nausea that accompanied that thought.

"He will be…"

Andy broke her eye contact with the man to look at the newcomer. She blinked tears from her eyes as Caroline walked into the house.

Caroline assured her Ma. She had thought about it in the cab ride over and knew now what would happen. "Now that you've found out, Mom will be informed, and he'll go to jail…" She moved slowly toward the woman and was now close enough to place a gentle hand on the woman's back. "You need to control yourself. You need to be strong, for us, for Mom."

Andy took a deep breath and licked her lips, squeezing the gun tighter. "Why didn't you tell her?"

"We were scared… If she'd known…" Caroline made slow circles on Andy's back with her hand. "… we didn't want to lose her. We didn't want her to do this very thing and be taken to jail. What would have happened to us then?"

"But he… and it was so long ago…" _Oh God… how could he? She was only nine!_ Her nostrils flared, her hand shook and her finger tightened on the trigger.

"I know what he did." Caroline sighed. "and I know when…" She recalled the exact date, the exact hour, it had begun. _I cried in Cassidy's arms for hours that night._ The girl slowly moved her hand down Andy's arm. "Please, just give me the gun."

Andy didn't give up the gun. "How many times?" Caroline hadn't told her that little bit of information earlier.

"That doesn't matter now." Caroline, now infinitely calm, covered Andy's hand with hers. "Please, just give me the gun. You can't do this Andy. I **need** you **not** to do this. Please."

Andy slowly relaxed her grip, allowing Caroline to take the weapon from her hand. "I would have killed him." _For you._

"I know." Caroline breathed a little easier. "But I'm glad you didn't."

Stephen chuckled, sure now that **this** girl was Caroline. "That's my girl."

"Shut up." Caroline found herself pointing the gun at the man. _It would be so easy_, she thought. _ Just pull the trigger and he would be gone, but it wouldn't change anything would it? Jail would stop him from hurting anyone else._ Shaking her head, she lowered the gun and sighed. "We should call the police."

"No." Cassidy found herself shaking and hoped it didn't show. She'd gotten good over the years at hiding her emotions. Andy's question still echoed in her mind. _How many times… _She knew exactly how many times. Stephen's chuckle pulled her out of her thoughts.

"I knew you wouldn't turn me in, Caroline." He grinned at the girls thinking to himself that he'd been mistaken and that the other girl was actually Caroline. His expression sobered when the gun was once again aimed at him but he tried to be calm trusting that Caroline wouldn't let him be hurt.

"C'mon." Cassidy slowly, carefully, took the gun from her sister's hands. "Why don't you and Andy go outside." Their eyes met and Caroline's widened as she realized what her sister was thinking.

"No," She pleaded with Cassidy in a whisper. "You can't."

Cassidy felt the weight of the gun in her hand. It felt good. "Go…" They both turned as Stephen stood.

"Can I just say something?"

Both girls answered in unison. "NO!"

Cassidy shoved Caroline toward Andy, who caught the girl and they clung together, unable to tear their eyes from Cassidy as she raised the gun to aim at Stephen. The question posed earlier again whispered through her head and she ground her teeth together then growled, "Answer her." She shook the gun menacingly. "Tell Andy how many times." _It's time Caroline knew too._ When he remained silent, she took a step forward and yelled. "TELL HER!"

He stepped back, again dropping to the couch. As a look of fear finally appeared on his face, he admitted. "Twice a week, for a year."

Andy was stunned at that number and duration but she felt Caroline stiffen in her arms and saw the confused look on the girl's face. Cassidy was nodding and backing off, lowering the gun. She took a deep breath and turned away from the man to face her sister, again their gazes locked.

Andy heard the girl in her arms whisper. "Twice?" The questioning waver in her voice was nearly as heartbreaking as the gasp Caroline made when she realized what had really happened during that horrible time all those years ago; what Cassidy had done.

Cassidy bit her lip, unable to speak the words.

Stephen was now convinced that the girl holding the gun was indeed his Caroline and as he stood, again, spoke softly.

"You were special, Caroline…"

Laughing at that, Cassidy whirled on the man, raised the gun and pulled the trigger. They all jumped as the sound exploded in the room. She ignored the pain in her wrist from the weapon's recoil and blinked as Stephen staggered backward, dropping back on the couch.

He looked down, confused, at the bleeding hole she'd just made in him. "But…" Shock and confusion showed in his eyes and tinged his voice. "I loved you, Caroline…"

Cassidy brought her other hand up to steady the gun and prepare for the recoil as she pulled the trigger again. She looked on with fascination as the blood pumped out of his belly, soaking into the cushions under him. She felt a tear rolling down her cheek and took a step forward as she pulled the trigger again, and again, and again; firing until pulling the trigger only resulted in a quiet click. It didn't take long for him to stop moving, stop breathing, just stop.

Dropping the now useless gun at her feet, Cassidy turned to face the stunned women watching her. She swallowed hard and didn't bother to wipe the tears now trailing down her face as she once again locked her gaze with her sister; her sister that she loved, her sister that she would do… anything for.

"He never could tell us apart."

fin


End file.
